Allegory of Law and Mercy: Fall of man

The Allegory of Law and Mercy in the Bavarian State Painting Collections is either a late copy after Cranach's foundational composition or an original from later in the workshop's production history. Cranach invented this theological diagram — dividing the picture surface between the Law that condemns (Moses, the Fall, the Brazen Serpent, the damned) and the Mercy that saves (the Annunciation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the saved) — as a visual exposition of Lutheran soteriology. The composition became one of the most widely reproduced Protestant didactic images of the sixteenth century, circulating in prints, painted copies, and altarpieces across Lutheran Germany. It is arguably Cranach's most theologically original contribution: a new type of image invented specifically to explain Lutheran doctrine to lay audiences. The c.1600 date indicates the composition's longevity and the continued production of versions long after Cranach's death in 1553.

The composition is divided into two halves by a tree — on one side Moses with the tablets of the law, on the other the crucified Christ with the risen Christ beyond. Cranach's diagrammatic clarity and strong figure silhouettes serve the theological argument more than aesthetic refinement.